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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gastronomie" data-source="post: 6934561" data-attributes="member: 6860234">Nice to meet you, guys.  This is my first thread in these forums. :3Long version, for those who want specific information for adviceSo, I'm thinking of creating a short campaign,which is about professional dragon-slayers(level 15-ish, but considering making them stronger or weaker) infiltrating dragon lairs and slaying the dragons. The length will be several sessions, and I want it to be a compelling and challenging adventure in which the players are told beforehand that their characters may die brutal deaths.  The encounters will utilize synergy between monsters, and involve a lot of lethal tactics.  They say that for an army to conquer a fortress, they need three times the soldiers.  I believe this should be true, even in table-talk - of course, unless, the players know what’s coming to them.  The enemies will set up all sorts of traps and challenging encounters (not traps as in “yeah, you rolled good with perception and theives’ tools so you managed to remove the trap”, but traps as in deceiving the actual players, setting up clever ambushes etc.), and if the adventurers jump in head-first, they have no chance of survival.  Think Tucker’s Kobolds.  The key point will be gathering information beforehand through interaction with NPCs and other sources, and preparing based on that information.  My players are experienced and optimized, and I’m  also introducing an original rule: Every Caster can change their spell lists every day, even those which normally can’t (Sorcerers, Warlocks etc.), to prepare for the upcoming threats they hear about.  They will also gain access to some Rare or lower magic items of their choice, both the permanents and the expendables.However, I’m in need of ideas.  I have some, but not enough to fill in an entire adventure.If anyone has any good ideas or places to reference, please tell me.  It could be anything, from the plot hooks, to the characteristics of the domain of the dragon, to the combat techniques of the boss and his mooks, to the personality and goals of the dragon.  Thanks for reading~Short version, for those who quit in the middle of reading through AngryDM’s articlesI’m in need of ideas about how to run an interesting and deadly, high-level dragon-slaying adventure.  I have some ideas, but not enough to fill in an entire adventure.If anyone has any good ideas or places to reference, please tell me.  It could be anything, from the plot hooks, to the characteristics of the domain of the dragon, to the combat techniques of the boss and his mooks, to the personality and goals of the dragon.  Thanks~What I have in mind so farI’m thinking the first adventure arc will have an Adult Black Dragon as the main boss (depending on the players’ reactions, there may be second and third arcs after this).  This guy is in control of a gigantic marsh infested by kobolds, and recently, armies of kobolds rising from these marshlands have been invading the nearby city states of human civilization.  The Kobolds are weak on their own, but are recently seen being tactical, much like Hobgoblins, and some city states have already been conquered.  Either the leaders of the city states hire the adventurers, or the adventurers strike out on their own - either way, they need to do something to stop this threat.  The truth behind this is that the Black Dragon is growing bored of his everlasting life, and in his boredom, has decided to create a Kobold empire imitating that of humans.  If you know the Drifters manga/anime, imagine something like the Black King - the dragon puts his vast knowledge to use by educating the kobolds and creating an advanced society, with the dragon as its worshiped dictator, Hitler-style.  He’s basically playing Civilization.Running an entire empire is pretty damn hard work.  But the Black Dragon likes his job, because he’s free of boredom, and also, he takes pride in making his empire strong.  It proves how intelligent and superior he is to the other beings in the world.  He has no remorse or affection for his people - and as evidence, executions, especially those done by the dragon himself by eating them whole, are quite common (failing to conquer a city state will result in the deaths of all the returning warriors, for example).  Rather, the dragon thinks of the world like a chess game, and the armies are his pawns.  His long-term goal is to conquer all the city states nearby and establish a force even more prominent than the current one.  But it’s not like he’s really obsessed with it - he’s just bored.  If he fails, he wouldn’t really care, save for how he’ll get annoyed because of his gigantic ego.  He’ll just go fly somewhere else and re-start his empire.  Kobold villages are scattered across the dragon’s domain, with farms nearby.  The Kobold villages are well-defended, but with the right spells and role-playing it wouldn’t be impossible to get in without combat.  The dragon has also abducted a Golemancer who creates Clay Golems, which are positioned in important locations.  And with acid absorption, Clay Golems and Black Dragons make quite terrifying pairs...I’m thinking the dragon’s spell list will be Invisibility, Control Water and Polymorph.  Now, I do have some problems.  For one, Tucker’s Kobolds are fun, but having just Tucker’s Kobolds will be just frustrating, given how repetitive it can get.  I’m wondering what would make good minions of a Black Dragon, thematically (of course, it can be simply a monster roaming in the swamp, but I’d personally prefer if it was a minion).  Perhaps Yugoloths ruled by a ripped-off page of the Book of Keeping ? Or Hags, or whatever... One idea I have is to make the swamp infested by some necromantic energy that the dragon puts to his own advantage, creating zombies from deceased adventurers who have failed and were killed in the swamps.  What else?You can ignore my Kobold empire idea and post anything you want, including non-Black-dragon ideas.  It’s not like I actually decided to go Black Dragon first 100% - if I come up with better ideas, or if the ideas posted here are better, I might as well start with Red, or Blue, or whatever.[/spoiler]</blockquote>

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